


Metal heart

by Elizabeth G (WhiteCloud)



Category: X-Men (Original Timeline Movies)
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Charlotte is turned into metal statue, Charlotte wants them to be happy, Erika is anxious, Erika wants Charlotte to use her body forever, F/F, Female Charles Xavier, Female Erik Lehnsherr, Frozen style, Raven braids Charlotte, Raven is a good sister, Repentance, Self-Sacrifice, Sisterly Love, Strong Female Characters, Telepathic Bond, Trust Issues, Two Minds One Body, Wheelchairs, because the illness of her genuine body is Erika’s fault, but Charlotte forgave her the accident on the beach, in their own bodies, she manages to transfer her mind into Erika’s body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:48:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28920093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteCloud/pseuds/Elizabeth%20G
Summary: Erika was scared to accept Charlotte’s gentle feelings. She didn’t think she deserved that and didn’t let herself believe that Charlotte might’ve been happy with the closed, ill person she was. Moreover, she assumed Charlotte’s paralysis her fault and wasn’t going to forgive herself ever.Erika had hit Charlotte in the heart during the encounter. It had happened rather accidentally, but her power, increased by inner agony, had pierced Charlotte’s heart and started to gradually turn whole her body into metal. Erika deeply regretted her deed, yet there wasn’t anything she could think of, able to help Charlotte. This time, Erika didn’t feel the master of her power.Charlotte almost turned into a metal statue when Erika persuaded her to use the telepathic abilities to transfer the mind into another body. Charlotte awakened in Erika’s body which the latter was happy and relieved to sacrifice. Charlotte didn’t intend to let Erika vanish though. She encouraged her to live and desperately held the connection with her weakened mind, not leaving the attempts to return her metal body into its normal form.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Kudos: 3





	Metal heart

**Author's Note:**

> Probably, it’s noticeable that I was mostly inspired by Frozen story. It seemed to me that Erik and Elsa share some mental issues. Also, Erika would’ve looked good in the gray smoky dress, adorned with diamonds, and wearing metal rings on her fingers. She also could have that adorable braid around her head, so beautiful from one side, and from another, making her appearance mighty and masculine. 
> 
> I would write some Elsanna, later. I feel I should do it — waiting for a nice idea to strike my brain.

The moment her fingers touched her temple, she felt how different they became, suddenly cold, too solid, and numb. Charlotte lowered her palm to find it already heavy and stoned, covered with the shiny metal just in a few seconds. The next moment she was stricken with a horrible thought that her legs could look like the armor as well, but she didn’t feel them anyway and there wasn’t a chance to check. 

Charlotte pressed at the wheels of her wheelchair. One hand became hard and useless but she could still push herself forward with the other. Raven rushed to her with a stunned face. 

“What happened?! How are you?” she kneeled and grabbed one of Charlotte’s legs, lifting the fabric up, displaying the layer of insentient metal. 

Charlotte gasped at the strong feeling of numbness on her face. She raised her good hand to find a solid spot, chaining her cheek. She threw her head back, despairingly gulping in the air. It was definitely harder to make her lungs work, but she was grateful for still being able to breathe at all.

“We have to get to the plane as soon as possible! You can’t be on the field, you need help!” Raven cried out, reaching for her arm. Charlotte felt the touch just slightly. “Oh, even your hair has changed. Look, it’s grayish! And your eyes are so pale! It’s awful! Come, we must hurry,” Raven shook her a little, surprised that she seemed so reluctant to cooperate. 

Charlotte froze, let herself ponder for a moment. She managed to hide the fright, at least for some minute, and then she gazed at Raven as seriously and reassuringly as her damaged heart could allow her. 

“I need to say goodbye to Erika. Please, let me go.”

“What?!”

Raven flinched in shock. The tears emerged in her eyes. But she withdrew, and it helped Charlotte to push at the wheel with her still good hand. She could lose her limb any second, so she pushed herself with force, swiftly nearing the spot where Erika was fighting with the soldiers. 

Her figure looked whitish, merging with the hue of the ground, torn and exhausted, sprinkled with the hoarfrost. Her enemies were defeated by this time, so Erika could allow herself to be distracted. She must have heard the buzz of the wheels, accompanied by Charlotte’s desperate attempts to breathe. Her glance anxiously clung to the wheelchair, like it usually did. About a year has passed after the incident but Erika still couldn’t accept the presence of this big clumsy chair, providing Charlotte’s ability to move. 

She noticed the mystic changes on her body too – those cruel metal spots, freezing the remnants of lively skin. Erika turned around and rushed to her in a single rapid movement. Her mind was vibrating so violently that Charlotte barely could catch the strings of thoughts. But she understood much, being baffled with emotions, storming behind the façade of that inhumanly cold face. 

Erika abruptly stopped with a strange gesture, pulling her fingers to the temple as if trying to act Charlotte. 

“Please!” her terror thundered in Charlotte’s mind, hitting strong enough to cause a headache. “It can be too late! Please!”

Raven stumbled on her weak legs when the relentless magic completed its aim, enveloping Charlotte fully, making her one with her wheelchair. In a few seconds she turned into a shining metal statue, left without any signs of life, and Raven sobbed at the sight. 

“Oh! Charlotte!” she gasped, approaching her sister. 

The statue was unresponsive. Raven pressed at Charlotte’s shoulder softly, only to feel its cruel hardness. 

To her surprise, Erika was laying by the statue’s feet, unconscious. Raven didn’t know that this person could grief so badly. The sight of Charlotte’s transformation seemed to knock her out. 

Raven made sure that there was no way she could help her sister just now. She caressed that gentle gray face in an attempt to comfort both of them, and then she was going to lower herself and check on Erika. The feelings were returning to her though. 

Erika exhaled into the cold ground. Raven noticed how clumsy her first movements were when Erika struggled to prop at her arms and to lift her body in the sitting position. She even grabbed at her knees for a moment as if needing to take hold of her legs for moving them. But of course, those feet could easily bend by themselves, allowing her to kneel. She winced at the realization, and Raven gulped heavily, watching how Erika stared at her slender pale hands, before landing the knowing sorrowful gaze at the statue. 

“Charlotte?” Raven tried, unsure.

The answer was a painful gasp. She carefully slid her fingers down that sore face, then trailed off, flinching at the sound of that voice,

“I guess… so? Sorry, this mouth feels different,” Charlotte swallowed, then coughed, apparently trying to get used to her new organs.

It was really her. Raven’s eyes watered again, and then she suddenly giggled, having imagined Charlotte with this thick majestic voice – not quite masculine, but noticeably lower than Charlotte’s. 

“Can you help me to get up?”

Raven willingly did, squeezing her forearm securely and with a sense of surprise, because she has never supported Erika before. She persuaded herself it was her sister, but everything felt foreign at the moment. 

Charlotte got up slowly, a bit forgetful about how she was supposed to use her legs. She embraced the statue with her free hand, leaning against it, allowing Raven to let go slightly. Raven did it reluctantly, especially when noticed the tears, hanging at the edges of those lashes. Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut, evidently anguished at the realization of their reality. Her fingers then fled to her head, pressing at the pale temple, but nothing seemed to come out from this attempt. 

"What happened?" Raven finally dared to interrupt. 

"We were talking mentally, just before my full transformation," Charlotte muffled against the metal arm of her previous self. "Erika was worrying so much, sending me her bitterness and remorse. Her emotions didn't strike me, to my surprise. They rather poured in my heart gently, making me feel so full. I knew she loved me, and I hadn't much time to ponder. There was a brief moment of elevation, caused by her compassion and need for sacrificing. Then I succumbed." 

"You..." 

Those foreign eyes glimpsed at her. The skin under them was bruised from exhaustion. 

"She asked me to transfer my mind into her body, to prevent me from dying." Charlotte bit her lip, recalling the exact formulation – “your brilliant mind and your generosity, they must survive. And I have nothing else to give, just my body. I wish I kept it healthier for you," the thought had a touch of bitter joy, scratching at Charlotte's heart. "We didn't know whether I could manage it," she went on. "But it looks like I succeeded. What do you think, my friend?" 

Raven opened her mouth to answer but then froze from the impression that Charlotte wasn't referring to her. She was gazing into space instead as if peeking inside her mind. 

"It's strange," the quick thought rustled in Charlotte's head. "I'm glad." 

Charlotte concentrated further and was relieved to vividly feel the presence of Erika's mind near her own. It didn't seem weakened or damaged. Charlotte sighed, blinking through the newly emerging tears. 

\---

“Come, let me help you,” Raven whispered softly, feeling how her delight was mixing with the morning rays, making them even more welcoming. 

Charlotte glanced up from her sitting position. Every time it felt strange to see that ghostly-pale face, those straight strict lines of her skull. The expression of fondness made Erika’s face almost unrecognizable but familiar and warming altogether. It inspired Raven to return to her old happy memories of how Charlotte had been bringing her food when they were kids, and how she’d caressed her arms for the first time, making Raven flinch away, and how she’d begun to always call her sister. 

The feeling was similar when Raven grabbed Charlotte’s elbow, not too tightly, and carefully lifted her up. Charlotte leaned on her clumsily but was able to stand nevertheless, and they grinned to each other awkwardly, rather cheerfully, keeping barely an inch between their faces. 

After a few steps Charlotte stumbled and gasped from a sudden pain and irritation.

“I’m sorry, my friend.”

She looked genuinely frustrated with this little mistake, and Raven was going to comfort her here and now. The apology wasn’t for her though. Raven didn’t let herself be offended by that. She has never experienced warm feelings towards Erika, truth be said, but Charlotte knew better. For her sister’s well-being, Raven could display some patience. 

“What did she answer?”

Charlotte met her with a slow, astonished gaze. 

“Nothing… I mean, she didn’t answer something insignificant. She’s silent.”

“But she is still there?”

“Yes. She should be. I can feel her presence, although it always like… slips away from me. I try to call her but… I couldn’t lose her.”

“Of course you couldn’t,” Raven stated firmly, feeling her sister’s hurt. She touched Charlotte’s shoulder, assuring her that she was there, and only after a while she dared to shake that lifeless cold hand. “Come on. I understand it may seem not important for you just now, but you need to learn how to walk. Please, try.” 

Charlotte nodded, gulping her fears and grudges down. She stopped leaning on Raven and managed a few steps forward, before stumbling again and this time fully collapsing on the ground. Raven fell on her knees. The tart compassion spilled inside her, dissolving all decisiveness. 

“I’m sorry.”

“Charlotte, I’m sure that a bruise isn’t a thing Erika has ever feared,” Raven wanted to pull her hand to that tight cheek and rub away the faint strip of the tear. She hesitated and touched Charlotte’s palm instead, pushing it down with her fingers just slightly, drawing circles across the lines of protruding veins. “I think we may return to the mansion, to have some rest. One step at a time. Should I bring your wheelchair?”

“No,” Charlotte exhaled and glided her hands along the lean shins. “I can be too excited or too tired but, anyway, they want to move.”

\---

A woman in a gray hoodie stilled in the doorway of Raven’s room. A little flushed and soundly breathing, she knocked at the frame. It took Raven a few seconds to comprehend that it was Charlotte and not Erika.

“You were on a run.”

“Join me next time?” her sister smiled. That smile and blush made her cheeks look plump. So strange. 

“You’ve never done it regularly.”

“But Erika had. I’m trying to follow her habits. It should be good for her heath,” saying that, she disappeared into the shower. 

Soon Raven was kneeling behind her, brushing the long strands of silvery hair. Charlotte asked her to braid it, to create that majestic style Erika used to wear – the thick ashy braid should have formed a half-ring on the back of her head. Raven never considered herself a nice hairstylist but she agreed to try, just because the activity felt like bonding. 

“Can you still read minds?” Raven couldn’t hold herself from asking.

Maybe it was purely her imagination, but when she plunged her fingers into the ashy stands, her skin was prickling from the strange energy, flashing through those hairs and sparkling at their ends. Raven dared to assume that there were Charlotte’s thoughts, the work of her brilliant mind which hadn’t faded after changing the body. 

Charlotte gave her a careful smile to confirm those guesses. 

“I’m still a telepath, although it feels different. But I can feel how my mind is vibrating everywhere,” she paused warily. “Especially inside the pieces of metal which I can now sense too. Well, I need to explore my abilities further. It seems I’ve adopted my telepathic power so well that it’s now above my genes. My mind is enough to keep this power alive.”

“Wonderful,” Raven breathed. 

Still a telepath. She was elevated to realize that. She grasped those bony shoulders gently and froze from excitement when Charlotte turned around. The glance of the pale eyes enveloped Raven in the fresh tickling air of their bond. 

The silvery wreath was done and carefully inspected before the mirror. Raven nodded at the gratitude, fondling the arc of the braid, perplexed at the feeling that she was holding the horns of a northern goddess. Raven dismissed that impression. Keeping silence, she stood in front of her sister and readily met the slightly bewildered gaze.

Raven tensed in concentration. After a moment her face started to seem more roundish and the skin a tone darker. Raven shook her shoulders which now looked more fragile, and checked if the newly emerged locks were of the right, chestnut color. 

“Oh,” Charlotte only gasped.

“You know that we need it,” Raven pointed out patiently. “You intended to go on with your charity projects and to continue teaching. It requires meetings. Sister, you should understand, you can’t go out with this appearance. A lot of people know Erika and she scares the hell out of them. She’s assumed a serious threat. Humans or even your students may hurt you. There’re just prejudices, please, don’t take it close. I don’t want to offend or upset you.”

Charlotte nodded to the floor, not convinced but too anxious for arguing. 

“She’s extreme. People love you because you are gorgeous. I know that you care,” she sent this to the depth of her mind, but the answer never came. 

The pain was burning her throat – Raven simply swallowed it down, having thought that looking silly and positive was now more prudent. She turned to the corner where they kept one of Charlotte’s wheelchairs.

“Not sure that I’ll be able to wheel myself skillfully enough but, well, Hank will be there to support.”

\---

Charlotte excused herself before friends to go to sleep earlier. She was willing to work but Erika’s body needed rest, and Charlotte hadn’t the right to overstrain it. She took responsibility for them both, was entrusted to by Erika. 

To challenge her abilities with Cerebro was certainly a wrong idea. She was now lying in her bed exhausted, with annoying pain, pulsating between her temples, and the tendrils of sick weakness were creeping inside her body relentlessly. 

Charlotte closed her eyes to let the tears slid down her face. Remorse and fever softened her mind, and her lungs felt torn from the feeling of helplessness. 

“I’m so sorry, Erika… For ruining you.”

In those moments before falling asleep Erika sometimes became alive in her mind, her consciousness buzzing, her pain and worry rustling like hundreds of whispers, shattering and tickling Charlotte like needles. Today her cradle was depressing silence. 

Charlotte fell into the twinkling darkness, painted in grey hues. Erika was escaping her there. No matter how fast Charlotte followed, that lean back disappeared behind the wall, and the hard glance of those eyes grazed Charlotte’s heart. 

She didn’t need to hear explanations – Erika’s emotions were hot and raw inside her. To her anguish, Charlotte already knew that Erika didn’t plan to come back. At least not while her body was occupied by Charlotte. 

Charlotte didn’t feel she could talk about it with anyone, even with Raven. The suffering was swirling deep inside her, and its blows brought her even closer to her beloved. 

\---

"I'm delighted to see how much you've done for humans and mutants. They are lucky you were born," Erika's unnaturally even voice poured through the dark space. 

She was a fair ghostly spot at first. Gradually her features gathered together, letting Charlotte see that handsome face again. She checked her new body every day, but the bruised exhausted creature before the mirror couldn't be Erika – not that Erika she'd fell for. 

Charlotte wanted to wheel herself closer – the glassy surface of the ground and the swaying carpet of the fog made her hesitate. She could feel the sickening dampness even through her paralysis. 

She peeked up at Erika who was watching her with a frighteningly still expression as if wearing a mask. That mask looked arrogant and irritating for their acquaintances, but Charlotte always saw more behind it.

“You can do more in the future, you’ll fulfill your generous dreams and I’m glad to realize it,” Erika continued in the silence, slightly touching her chest, lifting after each deep breath. “Actually, you know that I wanted it too, to make the world better…” she exhaled shakily and allowed herself a little smile. “To make it purer. Revenge was a cruel path but I knew that and chose it consciously. I’m not a victim.”

“I know that you understood everything,” Charlotte cut in, struggling not to show so vividly that she adored Erika. 

“I knew it would ruin me but, in fact, I was already broken. You could feel it, digging inside my mind. I had nothing to lose and I was capable to accept that.”

“But your mind was pleasant.”

“I’m not a…” she grasped her head. 

Her elusive gasp spread through the space, along with muffled whispers, shuddering inside the clouds of fog. Charlotte wasn’t listening to those thoughts – the flows of emotions were enough to be sure that Erika cared about her. Therefore the glance of those anguished eyes was clinging to her wheelchair, again. 

"I can never stop apologizing, my words won't be enough." 

"I've said you already, you don't have to apologize because I forgave you," Charlotte leaned forward, willing to give reassurance and comfort. 

Erika waved her attempt away. She didn’t mean to neglect. Charlotte’s openness and the strength of her emotions – that was just too much to bear.

"No. Sometimes your need for kindness blinds you. I knew that my choice could wound someone who'd cross my path. But it was hard to imagine that as dear creature as you would suffer. Although you were my single friend, so the final was pretty obvious, isn't it?" she paused with her lips stretched, in a smile or in pain. 

"It's a misfortune, sure. But I'm not giving my forgiveness just because I do so always and to everybody. I thought about the accident a lot, I faced the consequences, and it was my serious, important decision to accept your remorse and forgive you. Because I know that you are sorry." 

"I am. But I can take it. And as redemption I want you to use my body for the common good. You will also free yourself from the injury I have inflicted on you. I can't think about anyone better to sacrifice my body to. You can make from it more good things that it's possible for me. I've been thinking long ago that I'm the one who's crippled here." 

"No," Charlotte just stated it as it was. She couldn't accept the offer. 

For a moment Erika stood speechless before her. The clouds of fog were waving at her feet, merging with the bottom of her smoky dress. 

"I need to disappear," she said hoarsely, wringing her hands. "I want to reveal my feelings to you in this way. You'll get your health back; you'll be able to walk. I’ll correct my failure. That's what I want." 

Charlotte paused to ponder, avoiding saying anything rashly. 

"Erika, I think if you're willing to disclose your feelings for me, fleeing away isn't the right choice. Not for me at least. Missing you won't make me happy, be sure." 

"But if I stay... I don't see myself as your shadow. I'm not your dark side. I want to be just me," Erika mumbled it, shaking from helplessness, which was so unusual for her. She knew her phrases sounded meaningless but hoped they would make sense for Charlotte. They did. 

"It's fine if you're not into helping people straightforwardly. You shouldn't stand by my side. I want you to remain yourself, too. And my paralysis won't be a problem for me, at least not as huge as you're probably picturing. I got enough time to reconcile and become used to it." 

Erika didn't change her expression. Nothing seemed to happen, the air stilled, and then black feathers started to fall from the invisible ceiling, hiding that slim figure from sight. Strangely, Charlotte didn't feel that she left. 

\--- 

Charlotte opened her eyes, warm and heavy from the fever. She touched her forehead absentmindedly and froze for a moment, finding it more wide and sharp than it should've been. Because it was Erika's head, she reminded herself with a pang of guilt – she's made Erika sick. 

The same figure from the dream was sitting at her bed. It didn't look fair anymore, rather dim, matching the surroundings of the room, already painted in night hues. Charlotte blinked a few seconds, struggling to focus, because at first she thought this figure was Raven. 

"Erika?" 

"Yes," the answer was soft like moonlight. Nobody would believe that Erika could sound so soothingly, but Charlotte had heard that velvety pitch before, more often since they'd gotten a chance to be left alone. "I'm sorry. I took some of your power. You used mine quite successfully... So I tried myself as a telepath and made this projection, just for your brain. We can talk more easily now." 

"Erika, I'm glad that you want to talk to me." 

"I understand. I couldn't make myself, didn't dare. But then... I was pondering there for a while." 

"I felt that, love," Charlotte nodded at her, trying to show that all her attention was now devoted to Erika. Not that Erika couldn't sense that through their mental connection. 

"Can we go to the laboratory now? It won't take much energy, although I can't support you – it seems I'm transparent. But if we reach the laboratory I feel I'll be able to explain the matter clearer there. So can we...?" 

"Sure, we can." 

\---

Charlotte's metal statue was awaiting them in the cabinet, surrounded by the heaps of chemical equipment. Charlotte used to spend hours here, absorbed in thoughts and experiments – exhausting her poor brains, as Raven would’ve said. But she was doing that all for Erika, despaired to return her. Well, and herself too. 

A month passed after the statue had been transferred here. It didn't change since, not in the least. Charlotte examined the metal every day, and each time she realized having less and less connection to that stoned body, her own body – the noble posture and childish plumpness, seeming foreign now.

How lucky she was that Erika decided to accompany her today. They could call Erika’s arrival a ghostly presence, but it still fulfilled Charlotte with comfort, even at the moment she noticed the sorrow of the gaze, fixed at the chained locks and cheeks. 

Erika was probably remembering the day she had done it to Charlotte, what Charlotte now recalled too. 

They had been talking about love and appreciation like they’d done often recently. But that time Erika had insisted on keeping distance, on staying at the different sides of the barricade. Such order should’ve been better for the world and, of course, Charlotte’s well-being. Their union had become a mirage. “You can’t kill me,” Charlotte had steeped out then, attempting to give a soothing embrace. Erika’s palm had been placed on her chest but the touch hadn’t warmed. Charlotte had felt the strangest sensation instead. Soon she realized that Erika, unaware of her feverish action, had started to cover her heart with metal. 

“I am shielding you,” the touch of the lean palm had whispered into her chest. And now the metal statue seemed to gaze at them reproachfully, drained of any signs of life.   
“I want you to put my mind in your body,” Erika croaked as if she was the one having a cold.

“What?”

Charlotte was praised with a tensed pale glance. 

“You transferred to my body and got my power. But this power is beyond a vessel, just like yours. I can feel it at least, even being a ghost,” Erika viewed the laboratory slowly, mildly. “All metal out here breathes into me, trembling along with my soul. I like the feeling. It says me that when you pull me into the statue the power will follow.”

“Unfortunately, Erika, that heart isn’t beating.”

“But I won’t die inside the metal. It’s a joy of my soul. You can’t kill a swimmer, throwing him into the ocean. The waters may be unfamiliar, dark and cold, but the swimmer will know how to go out, anyway. And just like him, I’m not afraid of being “thrown” into the metal. Besides…”

“Darling?”

“Besides, the exchange will help me to cope. Your injury struck me so hard… It’s a constant burden and pain of remorse. If I be the one in a wheelchair it’ll help me to find peace. I understand how hard it would be for you to live in my cursed vessel. But at least it’s healthy.”

“No. No, stop. I love being you. It gives me a chance to understand you better. I don’t want you to serve punishment, dealing with paralysis. You’re so important to me and I was happy to forgive you – I don’t want you to face sufferings, not anymore. And if you’re worried about my state, paralysis isn’t ruining my life, not when I have you.” 

“You’ll have me. But inside your body. I crave redemption, not suicide. Promise.”

“If it makes you feel good…” Charlotte pressed fingers to her temple, still unconvinced. 

Erika was watching her intently but it wasn’t a bad gaze. She rather encouraged. Meanwhile, their thoughts were rustling like leaves, and their emotions, so heavy at the moment, were pouring on the floor and moving like springs. Charlotte was absorbing that fullness, letting the potion of love and hurt stream through her veins. 

She closed her lids and prickled Erika’s mind with a short and bitter bye, before gently grasping it and pulling out. Her insides immediately ached at the loss, so swiftly emerging tears weren’t a surprise. Charlotte struggled to maintain her breathing even, while carefully planting the flow of energy into the statue. She could feel the weak impulses of telepathic power, the paralyzed tendrils of frozen mind, still coming from the metal, and she could allow herself a hope that those remnants of life would help Erika to make it. 

The transition was done. Charlotte gasped at the unfamiliar emptiness. She sat on the floor just there and got to rub her head, tangling the silver stands, trying to compose herself vainly, because the loosing of Erika’s presence felt horrible. She had to think about hope – there was always hope. As soon as she did it, the impulse of her power hit the statue and it immediately was met with a similar push. 

Erika was dealing with Charlotte’s telepathy for so long, so she should have known how to direct this power. The rustling of thoughts and the buzzing of furniture emerged again. Charlotte sensed the pulse of her mind inside the tiniest pieces of metal, and that’s when it slowly began to melt like the cover of ice. 

Charlotte got up shakily, to meet a creature in the wheelchair, looking so pale and sick that her breath hitched. But its lungs were moving, soundly accommodating the air and then heavily pushing it out. Those exhausted hands were crooked around the armrests of the wheelchair; the head was thrown back, and the curls of still gray hair tangled on the shoulders. 

The creature was drained but alive. Erika managed to save her, so spectacularly. How Charlotte could even doubt? 

She didn’t know what Erika’s brain condition now was. The pulse of her mind felt fine, but Charlotte decided to put her hands on the wheelchair first, willing not to scare Erika with contact. The touch to the metal construction or the soothing glide of Charlotte’s thoughts was sensed and those lids rose. The eyes peeking at her were silvery, magnificent and, sorrowfully, they seemed blind. 

Charlotte welcomed her gently, suddenly full of decidedness that the damage would be repaired, because that glance, so tiredly resting on her, undoubtedly belonged to her dearest person.


End file.
